Free the Oak Trees – Green Recovery

If you start to read about “Green Recovery” you are likely to see the term being used to describe many worthy causes but, you may be left thinking, “what is it all about?”. One good example is the Green Recovery Challenge Fund; set up to “… kick-start environmental renewal whilst creating and retaining a range of jobs. It is open to environmental charities and their partners to deliver projects in England. The aim of the fund is to support projectsRead more

Woodland Bats and Their Foraging Habitat

In so many cases where the abundance of wild species is falling, there is often a link with human activity, whether it is connected to pollution, changing climate and weather patterns or the loss of habitat from the development or depletion of natural features in the landscape. But where research is done to identify these causes and their subsequent knock-on effects to other species, it provides us with an opportunity to do something about it before it is too late.Read more

Veteranisation – Bat Conservation and Old Wood Features

Back in March 2020, the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) had organised a Woodland Bat Symposium at the WWF’s Living Planet Centre in Woking, Surrey. Only days before the battiest people from across the country were due to meet and share the latest news on bats in woodland habitats, the national conference was postponed – the first Covid-19 lockdown was around the corner. I was due to attend the conference to present a talk about how the Woodland Trust has beenRead more

A Woodland Cycle of Renewal

February is a month of lighter mornings and lengthening days, bringing an innate sense that, though we have not seen the last of the frost and snow, a new cycle of renewal is beginning. Some days have that fresh smell of sunlight warming the cold earth, where hints of spring emerge, raising flashes of yellow celandine and spears of green bluebell leaves that break through last year’s leaf litter. Nature’s inevitable cycle starts an annual awakening of wildlife but carriesRead more

Nature’s Grand Recycling Plan

Spring is just around the corner and it is our last chance to appreciate the bare trees and the amount of dead wood left in East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve. Here we understand the value of these carbon stores and the wildlife value they hold: a dead tree creates a gap in the canopy for the next generation of trees to grow; the leaf litter created in autumn by fallen leaves is a valuable food source and habitat, and ifRead more

An Industrious Rural Landscape

Devon’s landscapes are often considered to be among the most beautiful and diverse in the country. From the wind-swept moors and steep river valleys of Dartmoor, rolling through the lush green hills of south Devon to the towns, estuaries and beaches along the sparkling coast, there is a timeless quality to this wonderful county. But it hasn’t always looked like this. In fact, it’s never stopped changing through thousands of years where human endeavours have marked the landscape. Mineral extraction,Read more